Prospective international students are aware of new, restrictive policy environments in major destinations and are carefully considering whether their first choice destination is the right one after all.
Students are becoming better informed about their options, and they are applying to more institutions in a wider range of destinations than ever before. They are looking for a return on their study abroad investment and consult websites, student ambassadors, agents, rankings, and social media to inform their decisions. They expect excellent service, experience, and outcomes from the moment they first contact an institution or agent to the time they graduate – and they are absolutely justified in this expectation.
The clear implication for our industry is that we must all place a renewed emphasis on student outcomes and on ensuring quality at every stage of students’ journey in planning for, undertaking, and successfully completing their studies abroad.
I would like to take this opportunity to clear up a common misconception. Many people think of ICEF first and foremost as an events company, but in fact most of what we do is organised around the goal of ensuring that students have the best possible study abroad experience.
We can trace this focus back to our origins more than 30 years ago: I spent my childhood in my father’s language schools and worked in his agency as a teenager, before the business expanded into publishing and events. When we have introduced new services over the decades, it has always been from the perspective of trying to add something that would strengthen the work that we – educators, agents, and other stakeholders – all do together to support students and families.
For example, our agent quality assurance team now includes around 30 people, more than twice the size of our event management crew. This global agent team is responsible for identifying, contacting, and continuously reviewing agents. This is done primarily through our ICEF Agency Status program, which, with over 2,300 agencies in 130 countries accredited as of this month, is the largest global agency recognition and quality assurance program in the sector.
The same could be said of our training arm, ICEF Academy, which offers a range of professional courses for agent-based counsellors and educators alike. To date, more than 134,000 learners have registered for an Academy course, and over 20,000 of them have graduated to earn a counsellor certification or other qualification. In fact, one of our newest courses, Ethical Sales Training for Agents and Counsellors (ESTAC), is a great illustration of the type of difference that ICEF Academy can make.
Given the name of the course, you might think that ESTAC has a lot to do with codes of conduct and the like. But the course is not only about compliance: it is about empowering students to make informed choices.
The aim of ESTAC is to help agency-based student advisors build stronger, more authentic relationships with students, alumni and institutions – all while maintaining the highest standards and ensuring the best possible outcomes for students. Its underlying premise is that student advisors have a duty to put the welfare and best interests of students above all else. In this sense, the course aligns perfectly with our sector’s increased focus on student success and experience, making it a natural thing for ICEF Academy to offer.
There is something larger at work here, in that we are all necessarily concerned with how we can better support the students, families, and communities we serve.
There is a virtuous circle at work across many of these initiatives: ICEF Academy helps to improve the qualifications, knowledge, and skills of thousands of industry professionals, ICEF Agency Status recognises and promotes quality agents around the world, and ICEF events bring these qualified professionals together with a wide range of educators and other stakeholders. Finally, our publishing activities, including ICEF Monitor and the ICEF Insights magazine, provide market intelligence and insights for people working in our sector.
I don’t mean this to be some kind of boastful catalogue of ICEF’s noble efforts. There is something larger at work here, in that we are all necessarily concerned with how we can better support the students, families, and communities we serve.
We believe the best way to do this is by working together to raise professional standards and strengthen quality assurance measures across the industry. There is no question that each of us has a contribution to make, but together we can achieve even more. And it is clear – perhaps more so this year than ever before – that a focus on quality is the key to long-term, sustainable success in international education.
